VOLUNTEERS at a steam railway centre in Didcot are booking tickets for the new Sherlock Holmes movie after explosive scenes were filmed in their grimy engine shed.

Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows, starring Robert Downey Jnr as the great detective and Jude Law as his assistant Watson, has its European premiere in London tonight.

Key scenes for the Warner Brothers movie, a sequel to the hit film from 2009, were shot at Didcot Railway Centre last year next to Didcot Parkway railway station.

Passengers were left puzzled as they passed through the station and saw bright green boards blocking out views of the Ladygrove estate.

And film-makers warned residents not to be alarmed by explosions coming from the site as they recreated a munitions factory in the main engine shed.

Centre manager Roger Orchard said: “It was a very memorable shoot for us and all our volunteers can’t wait to see the movie.

“As part of the plot, Sherlock Holmes’ arch enemy Professor Moriarty is creating dangerous weapons in a German armaments factory.

“The scenes featured these Big Bertha guns, which were huge – the wheels on them were about 9ft wide and they towered over our steam trains.

“Robert Downey Jnr and Jude Law were only here for about three days but the film crew was here for six weeks and director Guy Ritchie was very friendly – he would often sit down in our canteen for a chat over beans and chips.

“Getting film companies to shoot scenes here is very lucrative for the centre and that helps us with our plans to develop it.

“Once the movie is out, we also get film fans coming to visit.”

Last month, Keira Knightley and other actors arrived at the centre to film a new blockbuster version of Leo Tolstoy’s novel Anna Karenina.

Set builders recreated a snowy Russian railway scene as a backdrop to emotional arrivals and departures.

Mr Orchard said: “Now that we have had two big budget films here, it feels like we are an offshoot of Shepperton Studios.

“We are getting a good reputation in the film industry – we must be number one as a location for railway scenes.”

The centre, which opened in 1967, still has an original engine shed and is often used for platform shots doubling as Paddington Station in London.

During the past 25 years, there have been more than 100 visits from film crews.

A £125,000 fundraising drive was recently completed so the centre could sign a 50-year lease with Network Rail, which will allow long-term expansion plans on the site to go ahead.

Town council leader Margaret Davies said: “It’s a tribute to the volunteers that these big film companies keep coming back. This puts Didcot on the map and the railway centre on cinema screens.”

The European premiere of Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows is being held at the Empire, Leicester Square. The film, due in cinemas on December 16, also stars Noomi Rapace, Rachel McAdams and Jared Harris.

didcot@oxfordmail.co.uk